Stereo Ricohmatic 225 Project Page

January 2007 Update: I've been using the SR225 (as I like to call it) for over 6 years now without any further failures. The shutter has been totally reliable. I have learned that at small apertures (below f22) the apertures on the two sides don't always track well. So sometimes I get one side darker than the other. I guess that's what happens when you use them outside their design range. The linked focus and film advance have also been trouble-free. Overall I'm very happy with it and haven't felt the urge to use my Sputnik much since getting the SR225 operational.

I have a wide neck strap on it and can get good results shooting hand-held (more like body-held) with it hung around my neck and held with both hands. I have shot Jazz and Fringe festival photos at 1/125 using this method and got very sharp photos (though not always as much depth of field as I'd like).

I never did complete any of the cosmetic finishing of the camera like glueing the front leatherette back on. I guess once it was working I put my effort into taking good photos with it, rather than making the camera good looking.

Recent progress (Feb. 16, 2000): After the October
update I loaded up the camera with film and started shooting.
After 5 shots the shutter blades jammed open and wouldn't
close. I did a partial disassembly and got the shutter blades
closed but the shutter no longer worked properly. So I cranked
the film through and got it developed. I was very excited by
the quality of the five shots (one of them is in my photo gallery).
And very sad that my camera wasn't working.

Sam had another go at cleaning and re-aligning the shutters
but it still wouldn't work properly. So for a while I owned
a nice 2 kg boat anchor. But a friend, who used to have a camera
repair business (thanks Gary), offered to try to fix the shutter
problem. And he did! Cleaned the shutter again, replaced some parts
and relubed the shutter. I got it back on February 10th and today
got around to measuring the shutter speeds one more time. I now have
a new cheat-sheet to tape to the back of the camera and I'm ready
to shoot some photos again. Happy day!

Recent progress (Oct. 18, 1999): I had some problems
with erratic timing in the (master) shutter so I sent the
shutters back to Sam for a cleaning. I got them back about
a week ago and re-installed them in the camera. I then
measured the (much improved) shutter speeds and made up a
cheat sheet to stick on the back of the camera (mechanical
shutters are seldom right on at all speeds). I loaded up
two rolls of Velvia and started taking some photos. I'll
let you know how they turn out.

There are still some cosmetic things to do on the camera
(re-attach leatherette) but for now I plan to use my
camera rather than work on it. Probably the most urgent thing
is a guard for the shutter linkage, since if you bump it you
can open the aperture blades and fog your film.

Recent progress (July 30, 1999): The camera is back from Sam
and the shutters are now linked. Yippie! Still to do is measure
the shutter speeds to see how much the extra mass has slowed
the various speeds. And to link the apertures together since Sam
didn't have time to do that. I'll probably shoot some test rolls
before trying to link the aperture though.

Recent progress (May 12, 1999): I glued the thin black
leather over the top and front seams. No light leaks are visible
using the lightbulb test. So now the camera's off to Sam to have
the shutters and apertures linked up.

Recent progress (April 25, 1999): Analyzed second test rolls and found
that right image is now <0.13% smaller than left on infinity shot. So moving
the 4 thou shim improved things as expected.

Focus at infinity is good. I took a
couple of shots of Venus (the planet) at
f3.5 and f5.6. The dot size is exactly
the same on L & R indicating focus match
and the same for f3.5 and f5.6 indicating
that the focus is at infinity. I'm very pleased.

My newspaper on the floor shot (with camera
on tripod at normal height and focus on center
of newspaper at 2m focus distance) shows
the near focus to differ by about 3" between L & R.
A second shot at f8 looks very good, mostly
hiding the slight focus mismatch. I don't
forsee shooting wide open much or ever so I'm
happy with the optics and focus as they
now are.

The above 3" difference was determined
using a 10x loupe (actually a 28mm camera
lens from a dead P&S). I mounted both
shots in 80x132mm MF stereo slide mounts then viewed them
with my viewer (40x84mm lenses) and found
the focus difference to be very hard to
see even on the f3.5 shot.

My second light leak test showed no
improvement. Actually it looked worse
thanks to faster film and longer exposure
of the camera seams to the sun. Again the top coupler hole was leaking
light to the right film only. About 1/2"
high and across most of the film width.
Bad.

After some head scratching I stuck a
red button type halogen bulb into the coupler
hole, stuck the AA battery holder in the
taking lens body cavity and closed up the
back (mostly). Then I could see light shining out the
top, and lots out the front seam, but none
out the back.

Sticking the bulb in the bottom coupler
hole showed a similar situation.
Pure luck and the shiny bearing on the
couplers make it so only the top right
fogs! I stuffed some black felt into the gap
between the two bodies through the coupler
holes and there was some improvement, but
the light wasn't entirely blocked.

So I've decided to get some black leather
and cover the seam between the two bodies in
the front and top. Then I shouldn't have
any problems. Even if I ever shoot 400 speed
film.

Overall I'm very pleased with how things
are looking.

Recent progress (April 1999): Analyzed test rolls and found
that right image is 0.34% smaller than left on infinity shot and
0.37% smaller on close focus shot.

Consulted with Sam and then decided to shim out the right lens a
bit to increase image size. The right lens originally had a 12 thou
thick spacer between the shutter and camera body, the left had a 22 thou
spacer made up of four thinner ones.

Moved a 4 thou spacer from left to right side (R now 16 and L now 18 thou). I expect
this to reduce
the image size difference by about 0.25%, so the missmatch should drop
to less than 0.1%. The depth of field at normal shooting apertures
should hide any missmatch in the focusing distance between left and right
lenses.

Bought some cheap film (Agfa Portrait) for testing. Repeated infinity
focus test and light leak test. I also plan to do some near focus tests on
these rolls also.

Recent progress (March 1999): Shot two test rolls. The photos
show that infinity focus and close focus (~2.5m) are pretty well matched.
Left and right image sizes aren't exactly the same, but less than
1% different (as expected from the lens matching results).

The light leak test on the test rolls showed a minor leak at the
top back where the two cameras are joined. Light is leaking through the
holes where the film spool coupler goes. Fixed problem by filling
gap between the two back doors with black heat shrink tubing (friction
fit). Also painted the top seam between the cameras with black paint.
If that doesn't work then a little strip of electrical tape should
solve the problem.

Recent progress (Nov 27/98): I chose the best matched
Rikenon lenses and installed them in the camera. I still need
to adjust the infinity focus of the viewing lenses and check
that the taking lenses' focus is okay.

I drilled a small hole in the slave side front to allow me to
cock the shutter on that camera. This will be used for the
taking lens focus check and when I run the test rolls of film
through (for lens match check and light leaks).

Recent progress (Nov 10/98): I tested the 5 Rikenon
lenses that I have to find the best FL match. Three of the
lenses are in essentially perfect condition and the other two
have flaws (rear element separation, front coating scratches).

The good news is that the three best ones all matched to 0.5%.
So I have a perfect pair for the Stereo 225 and a third one for
my separate Ricohmatic 225. Thus I can use it to take hyper stereos
(using it and the Stereo 225 with film loaded only in the master
side).

The non-perfect lenses measured about 1% different (the oldest serial
numbered one) and about 0.5% also.

Recent progress (Oct 18/98): I build up two jigs for
lens testing (to find the pair that match in focal length out
of the five Rikenon lenses I have).

The first jig held the stereo 225 upside down on my tripod.
The glass block has a test slide in it (corner and center points
marked). Several layers of glass hold the test slide parallel to
the film plain but lifted off it so that the image will come into
focus nearer than infinity. Basically the camera and lens is used
as a projector with a Maglight (focusing flashlight) used as the light
source. As shown the image is projected in focus on the wall at
a distance of about 0.8 metres (with the camera focused at infinity).

This jig had several problems: I don't have a spot in my house
where I can leave it set up for several days. And I didn't think
I could reproduce the setup (distance from wall) to within a mm
which is required to have good accuracy in the focal length comparisons.
Also, I don't have a good spanner wrench to remove and replace the
rear element group while in the camera. Thus I would be forced to remove the shutter assembly,
change lenses and reinstall it. All without moving the tripod. Good luck!

So I came up with the second jig. The front plate holds the lens parallel
to the glass block held on the rear plate. There is access from the side
so I should be able to remove the rear lens group by hand and install the
next one to test. If I have all my 5 Rikenon lenses at hand before starting
I should be able to test them all quickly and without having to move
my setup.

If a focal length match to less than 1% isn't possible then I may try
mixing and matching the various front and rear elements. A quick test
using the first jig showed a 1% change in FL when I replaced the front
lens group only (distance from the two marks on the wall went from 422 mm
to 418 mm).

I also attached my laser pointer onto jig 2. It is perpendicular to
the lens board. So I can hold a pocket mirror flat on the wall and aim
the laser pointer at it. When the laser spot reflects back and hits the
laser pointer then I am exactly perpendicular to the wall, and the lens
board is parallal to it.

Recent progress (Sept 98): Added black flocked paper in
the area between the two camera bodies. The goal is to prevent
light leaks through the holes that I made to couple the film
spools together.

Recent progress (Aug 26/98): Beautifying the camera.

By swapping parts from among my three 225's I have made
the Stereo 225 nicer looking. It now has the nameplate/range
switch on both sides. The lens panel front on the
slave camera that was yellowed has been replaced with a nicer one.

I also have two nice backs on the camera. They don't exactly
match because one is from an older camera that only has
the Depth of Field chart in feet. The viewfinder cover on
the slave camera has been replaced with a better (less dinged)
one.

Recent progress (Aug 21/98): Extending aperture range (to f32).

The Ricohmatic 225 goes from f3.5 to f22
in 1/3 stop steps (clicks). Actually both of
mine go to one click past f22 (~f25).

The Seikosha SLV shutters assemblies, when
removed from the camera, will stop down to
about f45. The stop in the camera that prevents
this is just the slot that the aperture control
lever moves in. It hits the end of the slot at f22+1/3. So by
lengthening the slot I should be able to get
f32 and perhaps more.

One limitation is that the aperture lever
turns a geared ring that meshes with a 2nd geared
ring that surrounds the viewfinder lens. It
is used to display the aperture setting through
a window at the top of the viewfinder lens
bulge. Both geared rings only have teeth part
ways around. At f22 the last 3 teeth are in
contact. So I can't enlarge the slot so much
that the teeth completely disengage.

So I gradually enlarged the slot (Dremel
cutting disk) and checked that I still had
enough mesh on the gear teeth. After a few cut
and check steps I had f32. I kept going
and got f32+1/3 but had to stop before f32+2/3
(the last tooth was un-meshing). So I quit at
f32+1/2 stop.

I was a bit worried that the last bit of
the aperture control arc wouldn't be "linear".
But the 3 clicks past f22 (which I call f32)
measure out to be half the diameter of f16
(measuring curved sided pentagon with calipers
ain't easy :) .

Needless to say, I'm a happy camper. I
always wanted a MF stereo camera with f32
and now I'll have that and more (f38).

Recent progress (Aug 19/98):

The mounting plate (1/4" thick aluminum) helps hold the two cameras
together as well as providing a centered tripod
mounting hole (drilled and then tapped with 1/4-20 tap).
The two corners at the front of the plate
(top on photo) had to be removed to give access
to the locking latches for the backs. I want to be able
to change film without removing the plate.

The center section was left to help protect the focusing
linkage (from bumps etc.) and to reduce the
chance of the camera tipping over forward.

The holes for the camera screws were countersunk and
brass countersink screws were used to have a flat bottom
on the plate.

In this photo you can see the anti-tipping
benefit of the mounting plate. The focusing
linkage is visible below the lenses (cameras are focused
at infinity).
Click here
to see another photo with the viewfinder covers up.

This photo shows the cameras focused midway between
the minimum distance and infinity. You can see that
I made the hexagonal brass tubing
(press fit over the distance pointer) longer
so that the nylon socket part of the linkage doesn't
bump into the black lens plate cover. The camera needs to
be focused to infinity or minimum distance to avoid
interference with the back latches when you open them
up. When closed the tubing goes right above the latch
without touching it.

After adjusting the linkage length and adjusting the
position of the brass tubing so that both cameras hit
their infinity and min distance stops simultaneously
I soldered the tubing in place. I had previously filed
the nickel finish off the back of the pointers to reveal the
brass beneath. The tubing was quite tight on the pointers
so I just used regular 60/40 electronics solder. If more
strength were necessary silver solder could be used.